In December, 30k Aakash tablets were sold in an online sale, much faster than beleaguered India’s surrender to Australia, 2-0.

Buyers were promised to deliver these tablets within 7 days of online booking, but got delayed. Tablet distribution started in January ’12, and with this, started a long list of complaints.

Here are some horrific complaints, I’ve found in consumer forums,

Complaint 1: Never took off

After receiving an Aakash tablet, Mr. Navjot was over the moon. His happiness soon went off when his tablet failed to start. As per the given instructions, he first charged it full and powered-it on, but the screen didn’t lit up. He tried again and again but all in vain, nothing happened.

He dialed to customer care and was advised to repeat the process, which he did, but no still luck. He reached them again, and now he was said that the service center officials would call him in 2 days, but they never called. Since then, he is in problem and don’t know what to do with the cheapest tablet in which he invested, rather lost Rs 2700.

Complaint 2: Listening cacophony

One of my reader, Nitin, managed to purchase the tablet. He switched it on, started alright, performance was satisfactory but when he started playing songs, sound came out disastrous. It was good when tablet was first started, but now it turned cacophonous.

He restarted tablet many times, checked settings but nothing happened. He tried to reach customer care but the call was never connected. Now, Nitin is busy doing other stuffs on his Aakash tablet rather than listening songs.

Complaints 3: Hanged till death

Rohit is an engineering student from Mumbai. He got an Aakash tablet through his university at subsidized price. He has been working on the tablet for the past 5-6 days when one day his tablet started to hang. Despite not running heavy apps, his system hanged multiple times, which was beyond his comprehension.

He complained to his college authorities, who (probably)forwarded it to the concerned authority. 10 days gone since the complaint was launched, nobody reached/contacted him for help.

Complaint 4: Twisted, Broken and Died

This one is really terrible, one man from Orissa received the delivery of an Aakash tablet which was loosely packed. He saw minor damages on its outer surface but due of excitement, he accepted it.

And now, the tablet is not performing well and he has nowhere to go for help. No customer care centers, unreachable toll-free numbers, no clue, where to go, problems.

Complaint 5: I can’t say if I’m lucky

One of my readers got her faulty tablet replaced. She was happy to get the new one thinking it’ll be fun to use but hell broke loose when she found the similar problem with the new Aakash tablet in her hand. Both tablets never started after switching on the power button

She might be one of the luckiest buyer when her tablet got replaced, on the contrary to several others who can’t even find a way to reach customer care officials. Unfortunately, at the end, entire excitement turned baffler as she ultimately reached where it all started.

The article isn’t intended to discourage the sales of Aakash tablet. It’s just an attempt to highlight the problems faced by Aakash users, hence new buyers should kept this in mind while booking the tablet.